Art as Ecological Practice

A process-based exhibitionary project exploring ecological practice through workshops, performances, screenings, installations, cooking, and structured around artistic research, collaborative activities, and four seasonal assemblies: Spring Assembly (April 25–27, 2025), Summer Assembly (July 11–13, 2025), Fall Assembly (September 26–28, 2025), Winter Assembly (February 13–15, 2026)

Participating artists & researchers
Artists and researchers include Camilla Berner, Ewen Chardronnet, Field Narratives (Sascia Bailer, Andreas Doepke, hn. lyonga, Lene Markusen), Taro Furukata, Fernando Garcia-Dory (INLAND), Frauke Gerstenberg & Leon Bischinger (Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel), Seraina Grupp, Maj Hasager (Malmö Art Academy), Emilio Hernández Martínez (Cocina CoLaboratorio) & Dea López (Co.merr), Michael Hiltbrunner, Christian Huck, James Jack, Astrid S. Klein, Lene Markusen, Maya Minder, Meika Mizuno, Eva Hertzsch & Adam Page, Åsa Sonjasdotter, Riikka Tauriainen, Byungseo Yoo, Daniela Zambrano Almidón, and more. With local experts Wiebke Habbe, Erika Harzer, Raphaela Kuhn & Basti Weber, Inke Magens, Marle Rudolph and others.

How can contemporary artistic practices and their exhibitionary formats contribute to a sustainable way of life? How can cultural practices help to translate evidence-based knowledge into common knowledge?

The year-long exhibitionary project Art as Ecological Practice at the Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung in rural northern Germany seeks to put ecological thought–based on critical feminist materialism–into artistic and communal practices. To do so we may have to leave the symbolic distance within art. The project aims to go beyond aesthetic representations of “nature” and expand awareness of the climate crisis. It seeks to enact ecological thinking through artistic and scientific collaboration, engaging in participatory practices of contact with local experts and the interested public. By examining the relationships between organisms, environments, and governing systems (“NatureCulture”), the project critically deals with notions of sustainability, (agro-)cultural practices, and power structures – highlighting the governmental aspect of ecology as the study of our interdependences in more-than-human environments.
The central element of the project is a series of public assemblies, where artistic research, scientific insights, and local community perspectives converge. These gatherings include workshops, performances, cooking events, lectures and informal encounters, and aim to produce evidence-based, transversal knowledge between art, science, and everyday life.

Expanded exhibitionary practices
Instead of a static exhibition, Art as Ecological Practice will evolve over the year, “growing” with each seasonal assembly. The exhibition will integrate newly created works, which unfold in different time scales, existing pieces, and documentation of on-site collaborations. By engaging artists, scientists, and local practitioners, the project fosters participatory encounters and translocal connections. The exhibition space may become a contact zone where local conditions and transcultural knowledge exchange might be possible, engaging critically and self-critically in the asymmetric global relations in which we are all entangled.

Get involved
All events take place in person. We kindly encourage registration. Details are available on our website. Or register via the registration form.

Artistic direction & M.1 activities
Ronald Kolb (PhD) is the artistic director of M.1 kuratieren of the Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung for the 2025/26 cycle. He is concerned with curatorial practices at the intersection of art, knowledge and society. The program is grounded on his PhD dissertation “Curating as Governmental Practices. Post-Exhibitionary Practices under Translocal Conditions in Governmental Constellations”.

The Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung is a non-profit foundation established in 2003 to promote visual arts and culture. Since 2007, it has operated the M.1 building in Hohenlockstedt, Germany, which hosts three key programs: M.1 kuratieren, a curatorial scholarship for artistic direction; two Advancement Awards for visual artists from northern Germany; and M.1 Lokal, which blends art education, social practice, and amateur culture through local projects. Since 2010, M.1 Lokal has hosted various activities, including filmmaking and comic programs for young people, the M.1 Filmclub, the M.1 Repair Café, the QUEER BAR, a self-organized magazine and other community-based events, volunteering coordination by Charlotte Perka.

The institution is managed by Ulrike Boskamp and Katja Schroeder.